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ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ON WATERWAYS 



WILLIAM A. MEESE 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



INCIDENTS IN HIS LIFE 
RELATING TO 
WATERWAYS 



WILLIAM A. MEESK 



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Uncolniint 



Entered According to the Act of Congress in the year 1908 

By WILWAM A. MEESE 
In the Office of the Ivibrarian of Congress at Washington 



MOLINE, ILLINOIS 
DESAULNIERS & CO., PRINTERS 

1908 



NOTE 

TN presenting these few pages I lay 
no claim to anything new in the life 
of our great president. I have simply 
gathered all of the data within my 
reach, relating to Abraham Lincoln's 
connection with Waterways and Water- 
way Legislation. At this time, when 
the trend of public sentiment is so 
strong toward the improvement of rivers 
and harbors, I believed it might be in- 
teresting to the advocates of waterways 
to know that Abraham Lincoln, in his 
day, when the means of navigation were 
so crude, advocated the policy which 
today, a half -century later is being 
just as strongly urged, and that the 
policy he advocated was the result of 
Lincoln's personal observations and 
practical experience upon our western 
rivers. Thus did Lincoln do his share 
toward that work, the advancement of 
which so many are today still trying to 
promote. 



William A. Meese. 



February 12, 1908. 
Moline, Illinois. 



LINCOIvN'S BOYHOOD ON THE RIVER. 

Abraham I^INCOLN, a boy of sixteen living near 
'^^-*- Gentryville, Indiana, on the banks of the Ohio 
river, was employed for nine months in 1825 by 
James Taylor as a ferryman to operate a boat which 
crossed the Ohio river at the mouth of Anderson creek. 
Lincoln worked as a ferryman and as a boy-of-all-work 
and earned six dollars a month. 

The only modes of travel in those days were by wagon 
overland, or by boat on our lakes and rivers. The 
latter, where it could be followed, was the popular way. 
The Ohio river was thronged with boats. 

President Lincoln, one evening at the White House, 
told the following interesting story of his early experience 
while a ferryman on the river to Mr. Seward and a few 
friends. The president said : 

"Seward, you never heard, did you, how I earned my 
first dollar?" 

"No," rejoined Mr. Seward. 

"Well," continued Mr. Lincoln, "I belonged, you 
know, to what they called down south the 'scrubs.' We 
had succeeded in raising, chiefly by my labor, suflScient 
produce, as I thought, to justify me in taking it down 
the river to sell. 

"After much persuasion I got the consent of mother 
to go. I constructed a little flatboat, large enough to 
take a barrel or two of things that we had gathered, with 
myself and little bundle, down to the southern market. 
A steamer was coming down the river. We have, you 



know, no wharves on the western streams, and the 
custom was, if passengers were at any of the landings, 
for them to go out in a boat, the steamer stopping and 
taking them on board. 

"I was contemplating my new flatboat and wondering 
whether I could make it stronger or improve it in any 
particular, when two men came down to the shore in 
carriages, with trunks, and looking at the different boats 
singled out mine and asked: 

" 'Who own this? ' I answered, somewhat modestly, 
'I do.' 

" 'Will you,' said one of them, 'take us and our 
trunks out to the steamer?' 

"'Certainly,' said I. I was very glad to have the 
chance of earning something. I supposed that each of 
them would give me one or two or three bits. The 
trunks were put on my flatboat, the passengers seated 
themselves on the trunks and I sculled them out to the 
steamboat. 

"They got on board and I lifted up their heavy trunks 
and put them on deck. The steamer was about to put 
on steam again, when I called out that they had forgot- 
ten to pay me. Each of them took from his pocket a 
silver half-dollar, and threw it on the floor of my boat. 
I could scarcely believe my eyes when I picked up the 
money. Gentlemen, you may think it was a very little 
thing, and in these days it seems to me a trifle ; but it 
was a most important incident in my life. I could 
scarcely credit that I, a poor boy, had earned a dollar. 
The world seemed wider and fairer before me. I was a 
more hopeful and confident being from that time." 

In March, 1828, when only nineteen years old, Lincoln 
hired out to Mr. Gentry, the leading citizen of the 
vicinity, as a "bow hand" and "to work the front oars" 
on a flatboat going with a cargo of bacon to New 
Orleans. His wages were eight dollars a month and his 
passage home. The trip was about 1800 miles in length 



and it was lyincoln's first experience away from home. 
The entire business of the trip was placed in Lincoln's 
care, and a son of Mr. Gentry was his sole companion. 

One night when the flatboat was laid up at a sugar 
plantation six miles below Baton Rouge and while the 
boys were asleep, seven negroes attempted to board her 
intending to commit robbery. Lincoln and young 
Gentry were awakened. Lincoln seized a hand spike, 
and as the foremost negro jumped on the boat, 
knocked him into the water. The second, third and 
fourth robber as each tried to board the boat was 
treated in the same way, and then the negroes turned 
and fled. 

Young Gentry and Lincoln pursued the robbers and 
administered to them a severe beating. In this encounter 
Lincoln received a wound, the scar of which he bore 
through life. Arriving at New Orleans, the "load" as 
well as the flatboat were sold and the young men re- 
turned to their homes some time in June. 



LINCOLN A BOAT BUILDER. 

In 1830, when Lincoln was twenty-one years old, his 
father moved from Indiana to Illinois, and Lincoln then 
started out in life for himself. 

In the spring of 1831 he superintended and helped to 
build a flatboat at Kirkpatrick's mill in Sangamon town 
on the Sangamon river. The boat was built for a Mr. 
Orfutt and was completed in thirty days. Lincoln was 
one of the crew that started in the latter part of April 
with the boat, loaded with corn and pork, for New 
Orleans. But just before starting he had quite an ad- 
venture which was described as follows by an eye wit- 
ness, John Roll : 

' ' It was the spring following the winter of the deep 
snow. Walter Carman, John Seamon and myself, and 



at times others of the Carman boys, had helped Abe in 
building the boat, and when we had finished we went to 
work to make a dugout, or canoe, to be used as a small 
boat with the flat. We found a suitable log about an 
eighth of a mile up the river, and with our axes went 
to work under I^incoln's direction. The river was very 
high, fairly 'booming.' 

"After the dugout was ready to launch, we took it to 
the edge of the water and made ready to 'let her go,' 
when Walter Carman and John Seamon jumped in as 
the boat struck the water, each one anxious to be the 
first to get a ride. As they shot out from the shore they 
found they were unable to make any headway against 
the strong current. Carman had the paddle and Seamon 
was in the stern of the boat. lyincoln shouted to them 
to 'head up stream' and 'work back to shore,' but they 
found themselves powerless against the stream. 

"At last they began to pull for the wreck of an old 
flatboat, the first ever built on the Sangamon, which had 
sunk and gone to pieces, leaving one of the stanchions 
sticking above the water. Just as they reached it 
Seamon made a grab, and caught hold of the stanchion, 
when the canoe capsized, leaving Seamon clinging to 
the old timber, and throwing Carman into the stream. 
It carried him down with the speed of a mill-race. 
Lincoln raised his voice above the roar of the flood and 
yelled to Carman to swim for an old tree which stood 
almost in the channel, which the action of the high 
water had changed. 

"Carman, being a good swimmer, succeeded in catch- 
ing a branch and pulled himself up out of the water, 
which was very cold and had almost chilled him to 
death; and there he sat shivering and chattering in the 
tree. Lincoln, seeing Carman safe, called out to Seamon 
to let go the stanchion and swim for the tree. With 
some hesitation he obeyed and struck out, while Lincoln 
cheered and directed him from the bank. As Seamon 



10 



neared the tree, he made one grab for a branch, and 
missing it, went under the water. Another desperate 
lunge was successful, and he climbed up beside Carman. 
Things were pretty exciting now, for there were two 
men in the tree and the boat gone. 

"it was a cold, raw April day and there was great 
danger of the men becoming benumbed and falling back 
into the water. lyincoln called out to them to keep their 
spirits up and he would save them. The village had 
been alarmed by this time, and many people had come 
down to the bank. lyincoln procured a rope and tied it 
to a log. He called all hands to come and help roll the 
log into the water, and after this had been done, he with 
the assistance of several others towed it some distance 
up the stream, A daring young fellow by the name of 
'Jim' Dorrel then took his seat on the end of the log, 
and it was pushed out into the current, with the expec- 
tation that it would be carried down stream against the 
tree where Seamon and Carman were. 

"The log was well directed and went straight to the 
tree. But Jim, in his impatience to help his friends, fell 
a victim to his good intentions. Making a frantic grab 
at a branch, he raised himself off the log, which was 
swept from under him by the raging water, and he soon 
joined the other two victims upon their forlorn perch. 

"The excitement on shore increased and almost the 
whole population of the village gathered on the river 
bank. 

"lyincoln had the log pulled up stream, and securing 
another piece of rope, called to the men in the tree to 
catch it if they could when he should reach the tree. 
He then straddled the log himself and gave the word to 
push out into the stream. When he dashed into the 
tree, he threw the rope over the stump of a broken limb 
and let it play until it broke the speed of the log which 
gradually drew back to the tree, holding it there until 



the three now nearly frozen men had climbed down and 
seated themselves astride. He then gave orders to the 
people on the shore to hold fast to the end of the rope 
which was tied to the log, and leaving his rope in the 
tree, he turned the log adrift. The force of the current, 
acting against the taut rope, swung the log around 
against the bank and all 'on board' were saved. 

"The excited people, who had watched the dangerous 
experiment with alternate hope and fear, now broke into 
cheers for Abe L-incoln and praises for his brave act. 
This adventure made quite a hero of him along the 
Sangamon, and the people never tired telling of the 
exploit." 

The flatboat was soon loaded and the trip south com- 
menced. But the boat got only to New Salem, where it 
stuck fast on a milldam, and for nearly twenty-four 
hours it lay, the bow in the air and the stern in the 
water. I/incoln's ingenuity, however, came to the 
rescue. The cargo was first unloaded, and then I^incoln 
succeeded in tilting the boat forward, after which he 
bored holes in the bow, thus allowing the water to run 
out, when the boat was easily moved over the dam. 
This was considered a great feat and was talked about 
for years afterward. The boat reached New Orleans in 
May, and after a month's stay in that city, Lincoln took 
passage on a steamboat for St. Louis and from that city 
walked to New Salem. 

HIS FIRST OBSERVATION OF SLAVERY. 

On this trip and on the one in 1828, Lincoln first saw 
the true side of the institution of slavery. New Orleans 
was then one of the largest slave markets in the country, 
and Mr. J. R. Herndon, afterwards Lincoln's law partner, 
says: 

"In New Orleans for the first time, Lincoln beheld the 
true horrors of human slavery. He saw negroes in 



chains — whipped and scourged. Against this inhu- 
manity his sense of right and justice rebelled, and his 
mind and conscience were awakened to a realization of 
what he had often heard and read. No doubt, as one of 
his companions said, 'Slavery ran the iron into him 
then and there.' 

"One morning in their rambles over the city the trio 
passed a slave auction. A vigorous and comely mulatto 
girl was being sold. She underwent a thorough exam- 
ination at the hands of the bidders ; they pinched her 
flesh and made her trot up and down the room like a 
horse, to show how she moved and in order, as the 
auctioneer said, that bidders might satisfy themselves 
whether the article they were offering to buy was sound 
or not.' The whole thing was so revolting that Lincoln 
moved away from the scene with a deep feeling of 
'unconquerable hate.' Bidding his companions follow 
him, he said : 

"Boys, let's get away from this. If ever I get a 
chance to hit that thing (meaning slavery), I'll hit it 
hard." 

A short time after this Lincoln took a job of piloting 
a flatboat bearing Dr. Nelson, a pioneer, and his family 
down the Sangamon river and thence down the Illinois 
river to Beardstown. Nelson was intent on settling 
in Texas. 

LINCOLN'S FIRST SPEECH. 

In March, 1830, while in Macon county and when 
only twenty-one years old, Abraham Lincoln made his 
first public speech. It was on Waterways. A candidate 
for the legislature named John F. Posey had made a 
speech where Lincoln and his cousin John Hanks were 
at work. John Hanks said "it was a bad one" and 
that Lincoln could beat it. Hanks turned down a box, 



13 



lyincoln mounted it and made his speech. Hanks says : 
"Abe beat him to death." lyincoln discussed "The 
Navigation of the Sangamon River." 

Lincoln's great ambition to be prominent in public 
life is early evinced. One of his biographers says : 

"Although he had never made a speech except in 
debating clubs and by the roadside, had read only the 
books he could pick up and had known only the men 
who made up the poor, out-of-the-way towns in which 
he had lived, 'encouraged by his great popularity among 
his immediate neighbors,' as he says himself, he decided 
to announce himself in March, 1832, as a candidate for 
the General Assembly of the state." 

A CANDIDATE FAVORING WATERWAY 
IMPROVEMENTS. 

It was a custom of the times for a candidate for office 
to issue a printed announcement, stating his "sentiments 
with regard to local affairs." Illinois was in the throes 
of an Internal Improvement era. lyincoln, knowing his 
people, believed in improving the Sangamon river so 
that the Sangamon country people could get to Beards- 
town and the Mississippi river by water, and he devoted 
most of his "Announcement" to this subject. Speaking 
of the Sangamon river he said : 

"Respecting this view, I think I may say, without the 
fear of being contradicted, that its navigation may be 
rendered completely practicable, as high as the mouth of 
the south fork or probably higher, to vessels of from 
twenty-five to thirty tons burden for at least one-half of 
all common years, and to vessels of much greater burden 
a part of the time. From my peculiar circumstances, it 
is probable that for the last twelve months I have given 
as particular attention to the stage of the water in this 
river as any other person in the country. In the month 



of March, 1831, in company with others, I commenced 
the building of a flatboat on the Sangamon, and finished 
and took her out in the course of the spring. Since that 
time I have been concerned in the mill at New Salem. 

"These circumstances are sufficient evidence that I 
have not been very inattentive to the stages of the water. 
The time at which we crossed the mill-dam in the last 
days of April, the water was lower than it had been since 
the breaking of winter in February or than it was for 
several weeks after. The principal difficulties we en- 
countered in descending the river were from the drifted 
timber, which obstructions all know are not difficult to 
be removed. Knowing almost precisely the height of 
water at that time, I believe I am safe in saying that it 
has as often been higher as lower since. 

"From this view of the subject it appears that my cal- 
culations with regard to the navigation of the Sangamon 
cannot but be founded in reason ; but, whatever may be 
its natural advantages, certain it is that it never can be 
practically useful to any great extent without being 
greatly improved by art. 

"The drifted timber, as I have before mentioned, is 
the most formidable barrier to this object. Of all parts 
of this river, none will require so much labor in propor- 
tion to make it navigable as the last thirty or thirty -five 
miles ; and going with the meanderings of the channel, 
when we are this distance above its mouth we are only 
between twelve and eighteen miles above Beardstown in 
something near a straight direction ; and this route is 
upon such low ground as to retain water in many places 
during the season and in all parts such as to draw two- 
thirds or three-fourths of the river water at all high 
stages. 

"This route is on prairie land the whole distance, so 
that it appears to me, by removing the turf a sufficient 
width and damming up the old channel, the whole river in 
a short time would wash its way through, thereby cur- 



tailing the distance and increasing the velocity of the 
current very considerably, while there would be no tim- 
ber on the banks to obstruct its navigation in future ; 
and being nearly straight, the timber which might float 
in at the head would be apt to go clear through. There 
are also many places above this where the river, in its 
zigzag course, forms such complete peninsulas as to be 
easier to cut at the necks than to remove the obstructions 
from the bends, which if done would also lessen the 
distance. 

"What the cost of this work would be, I am unable to 
say. It is probable, however, that it would not be 
greater than is common to streams of the same length. 
Finally, I believe the improvement of the Sangamon 
river to be vastly important and highly desirable to the 
people of the county; and, if elected, any measure in 
the legislature having this for its object, which may 
appear judicious, will meet my approbation and receive 
my support." 

At this time occurred an event that aroused the great- 
est enthusiasm among the settlers in the Sangamon 
Valley. Some weeks before Lincoln issued his circulars, 
it was announced that a steamboat named the "Talis- 
man" would, as soon as the ice was out of the river, 
make a trip from Cincinnati via the Ohio, Mississippi 
and Illinois rivers up the Sangamon. The "Talisman" 
made the trip soon after, and its advent was hailed by 
all the country as a great event. 

Lincoln was hired as pilot to guide the boat up the 
Sangamon, and he safely brought her to a point near 
Springfield where she lay the object of an admiring 
country people for one whole week. Lincoln was also 
her pilot on her return trip to Beardstown. This was 
the first and only time a steamboat ever navigated the 
Sangamon river. Yet this trip for years was regarded 
as a practical demonstration of the navigability of that 
river. 

16 



LINCOLN IN BLACK HAWK WAR. 

Before the campaign was far advanced, the Black 
Hawk war broke out. Abraham Lincoln then twenty- 
three years old, on April 28, 1832, volunteered as a 
soldier and was mustered into the service of the state of 
Illinois in a company organized among the settlers in 
and around his home. Lincoln was elected captain of 
the company, and in after years in speaking of his elec- 
tion, he said that "not since, had he had any success in 
life which gave him so much satisfaction." 

The enlistments for this war were all for twenty and 
thirty days, as it was believed the war would be of short 
duration, and on May 27th Captain Lincoln and his 
company were mustered out of service. Lincoln on the 
same day re-enlisted as a private in Captain Elijah He's 
company for twenty days' service, and on June 13th his 
term of enlistment having expired, he was mustered out 
of the service. But immediately on that day he enlisted as 
private in the company of Captain Jacob M. Early. 
The officer who mustered Lincoln "in" and "out" on 
the 13th of June was Lieutenant Robert Anderson, after- 
ward of Fort Sumter fame. 

Lincoln's company was mustered out July 10, 1832, 
at the mouth of the Whitewater river in Wisconsin, and 
he in company with George Harrison started for home. 
Having lost their horses, they came afoot to Dixon, 
thence walked across the country to Peru, thence down 
to Peoria where they bought a canoe and floated down 
the Illinois river to Havana, from where they walked 
across the country to New Salem. 

In 1831 occurred the first Sac and Fox uprising. At 
this time Governor Reynolds issued a call for troops and 
at the head of his Illinois army marched against the 
Indians and destroyed their village at the mouth of Rock 
river. Lincoln at this time was on his second trip to 
New Orleans, or he would undoubtedly have enlisted in 
this campaign. 



Of Lincoln's war record, one of his early biographers 
said : 

"Mr. Lincoln, as yet a youth of but twenty-three, 
faithfully discharged his duty to his country, as a soldier 
persevering amid peculiar hardships and against the in- 
fluence of older men around him during the three 
months' service." 

LINCOLN IN THE LEGISLATURE. 

Upon arriving home he had but ten days before the 
August election, to which he in March had announced 
his candidacy for representative. Lincoln now took up 
his neglected campaign, and when the election was held 
on August 6th he found he was defeated. This was his 
first and only defeat. He ran as a Clay man in a county 
which was strongly democratic, and though beaten he re- 
ceived two hundred and vSeventy-seven votes out of the two 
hundred and eighty-four votes cast in the precinct in 
which he lived. A few months later Andrew Jackson, 
for president, received in this precinct a majority of one 
hundred and fifty-five. 

Lincoln now engaged in "keeping store," but spent 
most of his time studying. In a barrel of old junk he had 
purchased, he found a copy of Blackstone's Commentaries. 
Of these he said: 

"The more I read, the more intensely interested I be- 
came. Never in my whole life was my mind so thorough- 
ly absorbed. I read until I devoured them. " 

Lincoln was appointed postmaster at New Salem on 
May 7, 1833, holding the office until May 30, 1836, when 
the office was discontinued. This position brought in 
small revenue. He now took up the study of civil en- 
gineering, and six weeks after commencing was appoint- 
ed a deputy surveyor of Sangamon county. He sold his 
interest in the store in 1834 and devoted his time to sur- 
veying and the study of law. 



Ivincoln tried for the legislature in 1834 and at the 
August election was chosen as one of the four assembly- 
men from Sangamon county. He walked from his home 
to Vandalia to attend his first session . He was the young- 
est member of that legislature, with the exception of Jesse 
K. Dubois. 

The Ninth General Assembly to which lyincoln had 
been elected undertook to do great things. A new state 
bank was chartered and an act was passed providing for 
the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. 
Lincoln was appointed on the committee on Public Ac- 
counts and Expenditures. He offered several resolutions 
during this session, but was not successful, except in 
answering roll calls, where his name is invariably record- 
ed. He however was a strong advocate of the construc- 
tion of the canal. 

There appeared in the Sangamon Journal June 13, 1836, 
an announcement by Abraham I^incoln of his intention 
to try for reelection . In speaking of Internal Improve- 
ments, he said: 

"Whether elected or not, I go for distributing the pro- 
ceeds of the sales of the public lands to the several states, 
to enable our state in common with others to dig canals 
and construct railroads without borrowing money and 
paying the interest on it. " 

lyincoln was elected to the Tenth General Assembly and 
was assigned to the committee on finance. 

Sangamon county under the new redistricting sent two 
senators and seven members of the house. Each one of 
the nine members was over six feet in height and they 
were ever afterward known as the "lyong Nine." At 
this time the question of removing the capital from Van- 
dalia was before the legislature. Springfield was an ac- 
tive candidate and the "L,ong Nine," it is said, "rolled 
along like a snowball, gathering accessions of strength at 
every turn, until they swelled up a considerable party for 



19 



Springfield , which part}^ they managed to take ahnost as 
a unit in favor of the Internal Improvement system, in re- 
turn for which the active supporters of that system were 
to vote for Springfield to be the seat of government. " 

This legislature held two sessions, and lyincoln soon be- 
came recognized as the whig leader. Among the mem- 
bers were: Stephen A. Douglas, Edward D. Baker, O. H. 
Browning, William ly. D. Kwing, John I^ogan, father of 
the late Senator, General John A. Logan, Richard M. 
Cullom, father of Senator Shelby M. Cullom, General 
James Shields, Colonel John J. Hardin and a score of 
others who afterward achieved renown. 

Lincoln was licensed to practice law in the courts of 
Illinois September 9, 1836, and made his appearance in 
his first case in October. That year Lincoln took an ac- 
tive part in the Internal Improvement measures before the 
Assembly, but his most active work by far was in behalf 
of the removal of the capital from Vandalia to Springfield. 

In 1838 he was reelected to the Eleventh General As- 
sembly. He had by this time achieved a reputation "not 
only as a debater but as a watchful and successful repre- 
sentative." So well recognized was his position in his 
party that by common consent he received the whig vote 
for the speakership. 

During this session occurred an incident which, 
although not strictly relating to Internal Improvements, 
is exceedingly interesting. I once heard a very learned 
and well-known gentleman remark : 

"There is only one thing in the life of Abraham 
Lincoln that I do not like, and I do not know the reason 
for that. It is said he once jumped out of a window of 
the house of representatives to escape voting." 

Sometime afterward I ran across an account of the 
incident, and I give it here as it was given by Mr. Joseph 
Gillespie, a contemporary of Lincoln : 



20 



"The banks throughout the country became crippled 
during the panic of 1837, and they were throughout the 
west allowed to suspend specie payments. At the 
session of 1837-38, an act was passed authorizing the 
State Bank of Illinois to suspend 'until the end of the 
next General Assembly.' 

"Governor Carlin convened the next session two 
weeks earlier than the time prescribed for its meeting by 
the constitution. A quarrel occurred between some of 
the members of the dominant party and the bank, and it 
was secretly determined to adjourn the legislature, sine 
die, at the end of the first two weeks of the next session. 
That would be the next session after the act allowing 
the bank to suspend, and it would be compelled to 
resume while the banks in the other states were sus- 
pended, and they would drain the specie from our bank 
and pay out none themselves. 

"The whigs regarded this move as being unjust to the 
bank and detrimental to the welfare of the people. They 
got wind of the thing on the morning of the day when 
the adjournment was to take place, and they instantly 
resolved that they would absent themselves and thus 
break up a quorum. But, as the constitution of 1818 
would allow such a vote to be taken without a call of 
the ayes and nays, it was necessary that two whigs 
should be in the house to call for them , so that it should 
appear that a quorum was not voting, in which case the 
legislature could only adjourn from day to day, and the 
following Monday they would be convened by the 
constitution. 

"lyincoln and I were selected to call the ayes and nays, 
and the whigs promised to keep out of the way. When 
the motion was put we called for the ayes and nays, and 
there was no quorum voting. A call of the house was 
ordered, and the sergeant-at-arms was sent for the 
absentees, many of whom, we discovered, allowed them- 
selves to be caught and brought in. 



"Lincoln and I began to suspect that they had a 
quorum. Finding that the whigs who had been brought 
in would not withdraw, we got them to agree to call for 
the ayes and nays, and we concluded to leave. But 
ascertaining that the doors were locked, we raised the 
windows of the church in which the session was held and 
jumped out. The sergeant-at-arms, William Murphy, 
reported that he had commanded Cyrus Edwards to 
attend in his place. 

'What did he say?' inquired the speaker of the 
house. 

'He said he would not.' 
'what did you say?' 
" 'l told him I would take him by force.' 
" 'What did he do?' 

'He raised his cane and said : 'Touch me at your 
peril! ' 

'What did you do?' 
'"I sloped, sir."' 

For the fourth successive time Mr. Lincoln was elected 
to the legislature in 1840. This was the last election 
that he would accept, as in the last legislature he was 
the acknowledged whig leader and the candidate of his 
party for speaker. One of his biographers speaking of 
Lincoln in 1842 at the close of his legislative career says : 

"At the close of this period, with scarcely any con- 
sciousness of the fact himself, and with no noisy demon- 
strations or flashy ostentation in his behalf from his 
friends, he was really one of the foremost political men 
in the state." 

At the time Lincoln was elected to the legislature, the 
state was in a prosperous condition. Yet the legislature, 
seeking to emulate the example of some of the older 
states, undertook to improve conditions by chartering 
banks, building railroads to connect distant parts of the 



22 



state, dig canals and to improve the navigation of the 
Kaskaskia, Illinois, Great and Little Wabash and Rock 
rivers to all of which the state lent its aid. It was 
argued at public gatherings that "Illinois had all the 
natural advantages which constitute a great state ; a rich 
soil, variety of climate and great extent of territory." 

All it needed, it was said, was inhabitants and enter- 
prise. Cities and towns were laid out in all sections of 
the state. Grave fears were felt that the whole country 
was to be laid out in towns and that no land would be 
left for farming purposes. 

Counties that were not provided with projected rail- 
roads or canals were placated by promises to divide two 
hundred thousand dollars among them according to 
population. One forcible argument advanced was that 
the state would derive a very large sum as rent for the 
water power made by these improvements. The Internal 
Improvement era is best characterized by Governor 
Duncan in his valedictory address. He said : 

"Experience has now sufiiciently shown that all my 
objections to it must in time be fully realized. * * * 
That there should have been many mistakes committed 
and much waste of public money in conducting a system 
of internal improvements upon so large a scale, in a 
country almost entirely destitute of skill and experience 
in such works, was to be expected. But I confess they 
have occurred to an extent never anticipated by myself 
and, whether by mistake or design, it is very manifest 
that large sums have been squandered on objects of little 
or no general utility, and in some cases to the detriment 
of the public interest." 

lyincoln was an ardent advocate of all internal im- 
provements, especially the improvement of rivers, upon 
which subject he brought to bear his experience as a 
boatman and his knowledge otherwise acquired. In his 
advocacy of these subjects he was prompted by honest 
motives and a practical and personal knowledge of boat- 



ing, steamboats and waterways superior undoubtedly to 
that possessed by any of his colleagues. 

In 1843 lyincoln tried to secure the nomination for 
congress. One of the stories told by his political 
enemies was that he was an aristocrat. In speaking of 
this lyincoln in a letter dated March 26, 1843, to Martin 
M. Morris said : 

"It would astonish, if not amuse, the older citizens to 
learn that I (a stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless 
boy, working on a flatboat at ten dollars a month) 
have been put down here as the candidate of pride, 
wealth and aristocratic family distinction." 



IvINCOI^N AT THE CHICAGO RIVER AND 
HARBOR CONVENTION. 

In July, 1846, a bill for the improvement of harbors 
and the navigation of rivers passed both houses of 
congress. President James Polk vetoed the bill August 
3. Among the items in this bill were $15,000 for Buffalo 
harbor, $40,000 for Erie harbor, $20,000 for Cleveland 
harbor, $80,000 for Racine, Little Fort, Southport, 
Milwaukee and Chicago Dredge boat. President Polk 
said : "it would seem the dictate of wisdom under such 
circumstances to husband our means and not waste them 
on comparatively unimportant objects." 

The war with Mexico was in progress and the north 
became aroused. The Chicago Daily Journal of August 
12, 1846, in commenting on the message, said : "Husband 
our means forsooth. Are not millions being squandered 
by this same James K. Polk for the invasion of Mexico 
and the extension of slavery?" 

Another one of Polk's reasons was that "some one of 
the objects of the appropriation, contained in this bill. 



are local in their character, and lie within the limits of 
a single state ; and though in the language of the bill 
they are called harbors, they are not connected with 
foreign commerce, nor are they places of refuge or of 
shelter for our navy or commercial marine on the ocean 
or lake shores. ' ' 

At this time, the following vessels navigated the lakes 
above the Falls of Niagara: Steamboats 52, tonnage 
29,500; propellers 8, tonnage 2,500 ; brigs 50, tonnage 
11,000 ; schooners 270, tonnage 42,000. Total boats, 
380 ; total tonnage, 76,000. The cost of the construc- 
tion of these vessels was $4,600,000. 

Polk's veto aroused the people of the north and north- 
west, and Monday, July 5, 1847, pursuant to a widely 
advertised call, a convention was held in Chicago at 
which delegates from nineteen states were present. 
Horace Greeley was present, representing the New York 
Tribune. In an article published in that paper Saturday, 
July 17, 1847, he said: "A judicious estimate makes 
the number present today 20,000 men, of whom 10,000 
are here as members of the convention." 

New York state sent about 300. The Chicago Even- 
ing Journal of Tuesday, July 6, 1847, in a lengthy 
account of the convention, among other things, said : 

"it was a display, such as the west had never before 
beheld, but we value it not for the badges and banners 
and pageantry, not for its array of military or its blasts 
of music, but for the community of interest and of feel- 
ing that it indicated, thus gathering from every quarter 
of a republic, wide as the New World and comprehended 
by two oceans, gathering here at the hithermost extrem- 
ity of the great lake chain, the trading post, the very 
outpost of civilization, no, no, not that, for that was 
Chicago of 1812, but at the city of sixteen thousand, the 
Chicago of today, in itself a glorious exponent of tie 
triumph of enterprise," 



To this convention as delegates from Sangamon coun- 
ty, Illinois, came Dr. E. H. Merry man, Fred Doyle and 
Hon. Abraham Lincoln. The states were called alpha- 
betically and each was requested to select one of their 
number as a committee to nominate oflScers for the per- 
manent organization of the convention. Illinois named 
Abraham Lincoln. 

The Chicago Journal of July 6, 1847, said : 

"We are happy to see the Hon. Abraham Lincoln in 
attendance upon the convention, the only whig repre- 
sentative to congress from this state. This is his first 
visit to the commercial emporium of the state, and we 
have no doubt his visit will impress him more deeply if 
possible with the importance and inspire a higher zeal 
for the great interests of river and harbor improvements. 
We expect much from him as a representative in con- 
gress, and we have no doubt our expectations will be 
more than realized, for never was reliance placed in a 
nobler heart and a sounder judgment. We know the 
banner he bears will never be soiled." 

The same paper says in its convention report : 

"Hon. A. Lincoln of Illinois in response to numerous 
calls made his appearance on the stand and addressed 
the convention." 

In the forenoon David Dudley Field of New York 
had spoken against the right of the federal government 
to improve rivers and harbors, and Lincoln was called to 
answer him. One of his early biographers says : 

"A brief fifteen-minute speech of his on that occasion, 
of which there appears to be no report extant, is still 
remembered by many of those who heard it as one of 
the most eloquent and impressive efforts of that memo- 
rable convention." 

As to Lincoln's appearance at this period, the follow- 
ing reminiscence by Hon. E. B. Washburne is given: 

"One afternoon several of us sat on the sidewalk under 
the balcony in front of the Sherman House, and among 



the number the accomplished scholar and unrivalled or- 
ator lyisle Smith. He suddenly interrupted the conver- 
sation by exclaiming: ' 'There is lyincoln on the other side 
of the street! Just look at ' 'Old Abe! ' ' And from that time 
we all called him "Old Abe." No one who saw him can 
forget his personal appearance at that time. Tall and 
angular and awkward, he had on a short waistcoated thin 
swallow-tail coat, a short vest of same material, thin pan- 
taloons, scarcely coming down to his ankles, a straw hat 
and a pair of brogans with woolen socks." 

The New York Semi-Weekly Tribune gave a full ac- 
count of the convention and from its report of July 17, 
1847, we may learn how L,incoln at this time impressed 
the great editor. In his afternoon report of July 6, Mr. 
Greeley said: 

' ' In the afternoon Hon. Abraham lyincoln, a tall speci- 
men of an Illinoisan, just elected to congress from the 
only whig district in the state, was called out and spoke 
briefly and happily in reply to Mr. Field." 

I.INCOI.N'S SPEECH IN CONGRESS ON 
WATERWAYS. 

In May, 1846, lyincoln had been nominated by the 
whigs for congress. His opponent was Peter Cart- 
wright, the celebrated Methodist circuit rider. The cam- 
paign was vigorously prosecuted on both sides, but 
lyincoln was elected by over 1500 majority. 

In November, 1847, lyincoln left for Washington. He 
had hardly taken his seat in congress before he had an 
opportunity to take part in the consideration of Internal 
Improvements. Following Polk's veto and the Chicago 
river and harbor meeting, there was great enthusiasm for 
river and harbor improvements. 

lyincoln voted for the following resolution December 
20, 1847: 

Resolved, That if in the judgment of congress it be 
necessary to improve the navigation of a river to expe- 



27 



dite and render secure the movements of our army and 
save from delay and loss, our arms and munitions of war, 
congress has the power to improve such river. 

Resolved, That if it be necessary for the preservation 
of the lives of our seamen, repairs, safety or main- 
tenance of our vessels of war, to improve a harbor or 
inlet, either on our Atlantic or lake coast, congress has the 
power to make such improvement. 

Ivincoln's record in congress was brief. He made sev- 
eral speeches, the most notable, but less known one, on 
Internal Improvements. 

Congressman Frank O. lyowden, of Illinois, at a ban- 
quet tendered the delegates to the Upper Mississippi River 
Improvement Association at Moline, Illinois, by the man- 
ufacturers of that place on October 22, 1907, among 
other things said: 

' ' I had the good fortune within the last few days to 
read a speech which Abraham L,incolu made in the house 
of representatives of this old question of Internal Improve- 
ments. That was nearly sixty years ago. I was sur- 
prised, as I ought not to have been, at the strong argument 
which he advanced in favor of the general government 
undertaking Internal Improvements. The same master- 
ful accuracy and analysis were found in that speech which 
distinguished all his utterances, and if you have not read 
it I do hope that all of you who are interested in this 
great question will take the first opportunity to read it. 
Of course, one of the great questions which they had to 
meet at that time has since been decided by the courts, 
and that is the question of constitutionality. This ques- 
tion no longer enters into the thing, but among the ques- 
tions discussed beside the question of constitutionality 
was one which is just as important today as it was then, 
namely: that the improvement of a waterway is not a 
local improvement in any proper sense of the word. He 
admitted that one section would be, perhaps, more bene- 



fited than remote sections, but he insisted that after all 
it was in the interest of commerce which made for the 
benefit of the entire community." 

Lincoln's speech was made on June 20, 1848, in com- 
mittee of the whole house, and is reported in the Ap- 
pendix to the Congressional Globe for that session (p. 
709). It was as follows: 

Mr. lyincoln said : 

"Mr. Chairman : I wish at all times in no way to 
practice any fraud upon the house or the committee, and 
I also desire to do nothing which may be very disagree- 
able to any of the members. I therefore state, in 
advance, that my object in taking the floor is to make a 
speech on the general subject of Internal Improvements ; 
and if I am out of order in doing so, I give the Chair an 
opportunity of so deciding, and I will take my seat. 

The Chair : "l will not undertake to anticipate what 
the gentleman may say on the subject of Internal Im- 
provements. He will, therefore, proceed in his remarks, 
and if any question of order shall be made, the Chair 
will then decide it." 

Mr. Lrincoln : "At an early day of this session the 
president sent to us what may properly be termed an 
Internal Improvement veto message. The late demo- 
cratic convention which sat at Baltimore and which 
nominated General Cass for the presidency, adopted a 
set of resolutions, now called the democratic platform, 
among which is one in these words : 

" 'That the constitution does not confer upon the 
general government the power to commence and carry 
on a general system of Internal Improvements.' 

"General Cass, in his letter accepting the nomination, 
holds this language : 

" 'I have carefully read the resolutions of the demo- 
cratic national convention, laying down the platform of 
our political faith, and I adhere to them as firmly as I 
approve them cordially.' 



"These things, taken together, show that the question 
of Internal Improvements is now more distinctly made — 
has become more intense than in any former period. It 
can no longer be avoided. The veto message and the 
Baltimore resolution I understand to be, in substance, 
the same thing ; the latter being the more general state- 
ment, of which the former is the amplification — the bill 
of particulars. While I know there are many demo- 
crats, on the floor and elsewhere, who disapprove that 
message, I understand that all who shall vote for General 
Cajss will thereafter be considered as having approved it, 
as having indorsed all its doctrines. I suppose all, or 
nearly all, the democrats will vote for him. Many of 
them will do so, not because they like his position on 
this question, but because they prefer him, being wrong 
in this, to another whom they consider further wrong 
on other questions. In this way the Internal Improve- 
ment democrats are to be, by a sort of forced consent, 
carried over and arrayed against themselves on this 
measure of policy. 

"General Cass, once elected, will not trouble himself 
to make a constitutional argument, or perhaps any 
argument at all, when he shall veto a river or harbor 
bill. He will consider it a sufficient answer to all demo- 
cratic murmurs to point to Mr. Polk's message, and to 
the democratic platform. This being the case, the ques- 
tion of improvements is verging to a final crisis ; and 
the friends of the policy must now battle, and battle 
manfully, or surrender all. 



I.INCOI.N DISCUSSES THK 
PRESIDENT'S VETO. 

"in this view, humble as I am, I wish to review and 
contrast as well as I may the general positions of this 
veto message. When I say general positions, I mean to 



exclude from consideration so much as relates to the 
present embarrassed state of the treasury, in consequence 
of the Mexican war. 

"Those general positions are : That Internal Improve- 
ments ought not to be made by the general government. 

1 . Because they would overwhelm the treasury ; 

2. Because, while their burdens would be general, 
their benefits would be local and partial, involving an 
obnoxious inequality ; 

3. Because they would be unconstitutional ; 

4. Because the states may do enough by the levy and 
collection of tonnage duties ; or, if not, 

5. That the constitution may be amended. 

" 'Do nothing at all, lest you do something wrong,' 
is the sum of these positions — is the sum of this 
message ; and this, with the exception of what is said 
about constitutionality, applying as forcibly to making 
improvements by state authority as by the national 
authority. So that we must abandon the improvements 
of the countr}'' altogether, by any and every authority, 
or we may resist and repudiate the doctrines of this 
message. Let us attempt the latter. 

"The first position is, that a system of Internal Im- 
provement would overwhelm the treasury. 

"That in such a system^ there is a tendency to undue 
expansion is not to be denied. Such tendency is founded 
in the nature of the subject. A member of congress will 
prefer voting for a bill which contains an appropriation 
for his district, to voting for one which does not ; and 
when a bill shall be expanded till every district shall be 
provided for, that it will be too greatly expanded is 
obvious. But is this any more true in congress than in 
a state legislature? If a member of congress must have 
an appropriation for his district, so a member of a legis- 
lature must have for his county ; and if one will over- 
whelm the national treasury, so the other will overwhelm 
the state treasury. Go where we will, the difficulty is 



the same. Allow it to drive us from the halls of 
congress, and it will just as easily drive us from the 
state legislature. 

'%et us, then, grapple with it and test its strength. 
Let us, judging of the future by the past, ascertain 
whether there may not be, in the discretion of congress, 
a sufficient power to limit and restrain this expansion 
tendency within reasonable and proper bounds. The 
president himself values the evidence of the past. He 
tells us that at a certain point of our history more than 
two hundred millions of dollars have been applied for to 
make improvements, and this he does to prove that the 
treasury would be overwhelmed by such a system. Why 
did he not tell us how much was granted? Would not 
that have been better evidence? 

"Let us turn to it, and see what it proves. In the 
message, the president tells us that 'during the four 
succeeding years, embraced by the administration of 
President Adams, the power not only to appropriate 
money, but to apply it, under the direction and authority 
of the general government, as well to the construction of 
roads as to the improvement of harbors and rivers, was 
fully asserted and exercised.' 

"This, then, was the period of greatest enormity. 
These, if any, must have been days of the two hundred 
million dollars. And how much do you suppose was 
really expended for improvements during those four 
years? Two hundred millions? One hundred? Fifty? 
Ten? Five? No, sir, less than two millions. As shown 
by authentic documents, the expenditures on improve- 
ments during 1825, 1826, 1827 and 1828 amounted to 
$1,879,627.01. These four years were the period of 
Mr. Adams' administration, nearly and substantially. 
This fact shows that when the power to make improve- 
ments was 'fully asserted and exercised,' the congresses 
did keep within reasonable limits ; and what has been 
done, it seems to me, can be done again. 



32 



IvOCAIv IMPROVEMENTS ARE A 
GENERAL BENEFIT. 

"Now for the second position of the message, namely ; 
that the burdens of improvements would be general, 
while their benefits would be local and partial, involving 
an obnoxious inequality. That there is some degree of 
truth in this position I shall not deny. No commercial 
object of government patronage can be so exclusively 
general, as not to be of some peculiar local advantage ; 
but on the other hand, nothing is so local as not to be of 
some general advantage. 

"The navy, as I understand it, was established and is 
maintained at a great annual expense partly to be ready 
for war when war shall come, but partly also, and 
perhaps chiefly, for the protection of our commerce on 
the high seas. This latter object is, for all I can see, in 
principle the same as Internal Improvements. The 
driving a pirate from the track of commerce on the 
broad ocean and the removing a snag from its more nar- 
row path in the Mississippi river, cannot, I think, be 
distinguished in principle. Each is done to save life and 
property, and for nothing else. The navy, then, is the 
most general in its benefits of all this class of objects ; 
and yet even the navy is of some peculiar advantage to 
Charleston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and 
Boston, beyond what it is to the interior towns of Illinois. 

"The next most general object I can think of, would 
be improvements on the Mississippi river and its tribu- 
taries. They touch thirteen of our states — Pennsylvania, 
Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, 
Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin 
and Iowa. Now, I suppose it will not be denied, that 
these thirteen states are a little more interested in im- 
provements on that great river than are the remaining 
seventeen. These instances of the navy and the Missis- 
sippi river show clearly that there is something of local 
advantage in the most general objects. 

33 



"But the converse is also true, nothing is so local as 
not to be of some general benefit. Take for instance, 
the Illinois and Michigan canal. Considered apart from 
its effects it is perfectly local. Every inch of it is within 
the state of Illinois. That canal was first opened for 
business last April. In a very few days we were all 
gratified to learn, among other things, that sugar had 
been carried from New Orleans, through the canal, to 
Buffalo in New York. This sugar took this route doubt- 
less because it was cheaper than the old route. Sup- 
posing the benefit in the reduction of the cost of carriage 
to be shared between seller and buyer, the result is that 
the New Orleans merchant sold his sugar a little dearer, 
and the people of Buffalo sweetened their coffee a little 
cheaper than before ; a benefit resulting from the canal, 
not to Illinois where the canal is, but to lyouisiana and 
New York, where it is not. 

"in other transactions Illinois will, of course, have 
her share and perhaps the larger share too in the benefits 
of the canal, but the instance of the sugar clearly shows 
that the benefits of an improvement are by no means con- 
fined to the particular locality of the improvement itself. 

"The just conclusion from all this is, that if the nation 
refuse to make improvements of the more general kind, 
because their benefits may be somewhat local, a state 
may, for the same reason, refuse to make an improve- 
ment of a local kind, because its benefits may be some- 
what general. A state may well say to the nation: 'If 
you will do nothing for me I will do nothing for you.' 
Thus it is seen, that if this argument of 'inequality' is 
sufl&cient anywhere, it is sufficient everywhere, and puts 
an end to improvements altogether. I hope and believe, 
that if both the nation and the states would in good faith, 
in their respective spheres, do what they could in the way 
of improvements, what of inequality might be produced 
in one place might be compensated in another, and that 
the sum of the whole might not be very unequal. 



34 



But suppose, after all, there should be some degree of 
inequality. Inequality is certainly never to be embraced 
for its own sake; but is every good thing to be discarded 
which may be inseparably connected with some degree of 
it? If so, we must discard all government. This capitol 
is built at the public expense, for the public benefit; but 
does anyone doubt that it is of some peculiar local advan- 
age to the property holders and business people of Wash- 
ington? Shall we remove it for this reason? And if so, 
where shall we set it down and be free from the difficulty? 
To make sure of our object, shall we locate it nowhere 
and leave congress hereafter to hold its sessions as the 
loafer lodged, 'in spots about?' 

"I make no special allusion to the present president 
when I say, there are few stronger cases in this world of 
'burden to the many, and benefit to the few' — of 
'inequality' — than the presidency itself is by some 
thought to be. An honest laborer digs coal at about 
seventy cents a daj', while the president digs abstractions 
at about seventy dollars a day. The coal is clearly 
worth more than the abstractions, and yet what a 
monstrous inequality in the prices! Does the president, 
for this reason, propose to abolish the presidency? He 
does not and he ought not. The true rule, in determin- 
ing to embrace or reject anything, is not whether it have 
any evil in it, but whether it have more of evil than 
good. 

"There are few things wholly evil or wholly good. 
Almost everything, especially of government policy, is 
an inseparable compound of the two; so that our best 
judgment of the preponderance between them is con- 
tinually demanded. On this principle, the president, his 
friends and the world generally act on most subjects. 
Why not apply it, then, upon this question? Why, as 
to improvements, magnify the evil and stoutly refuse to 
see any good in them? 



35 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTION. 

"Mr. Chairman, on the third position of the message 
(the constitutional question) I have not much to say. 
Being the man I am, and speaking when I do, I feel that 
in any attempt at an original, constitutional argument, 
I should not be, and ought not to be, listened to patiently. 
The oldest and the best of men have gone over the whole 
ground long ago. I shall attempt but little more than a 
brief notice of what some of them have said. In relation 
to Mr. Jefferson's views, I read from Mr. Polk's veto 
message: 

'President Jefferson, in his message to congress in 
1806, recommended an amendment of his constitution, 
with a view to apply an anticipated surplus in the treasury 
'to the great purpose of the public education, roads, rivers, 
canals and such other objects of public improvements as 
it may be thought proper to add to the constitutional 
enumeration of the federal powers.' And he adds: I 
suppose an amendment to the constitution, by consent of 
the states necessary, because the objects now recommen- 
ded are not among those enumerated in the constitution, 
and to which it permits the public moneys to be applied.' 
In 1825, he repeated in his published letters, the opin- 
ion that such power has been conferred upon congress.' 

"I introduce this not to controvert just now the con- 
stitutional opinion, but to show that on the question of 
expediency Mr. Jefferson's opinion was against the 
present president — that this opinion of Mr. Jefferson, in 
one branch at least, is in the hands of Mr. Polk, like 
McFingal's gun: 

'"Bears wide and kicks the owner over.' 

"But, to the constitutional question. In 1826, Chan- 
cellor Kent first published his Commentaries on Ameri- 
can Law. He devoted a portion of one of the lectures 
to the question of the authority of congress to appropriate 
public moneys for internal improvements. He men- 



36 



tions that the question had never been brought under 
judicial consideration, and proceeds to give a brief sum- 
mary of the discussions it had undergone between the 
legislative and executive branches of the government. 
He shows that the legislative branch had usually been for, 
and the executive against, the power till the period of 
Mr. J. Q. Adams' administration, at which point he con- 
sidered the executive influence as withdrawn from 
opposition and added to the support of the power. In 
1844 the Chancellor published a new edition of his Com- 
mentaries, in which he adds some notes of what had 
transpired on the question since 1826. I have not time 
to read the original text or the notes, but the whole may 
be found on page 267 and the two or three following 
pages of the first volume of the edition of 1844. As what 
Chancellor Kent seems to consider the sum of the whole, 
I read from one of the notes: 

" 'Mr. Justice Story, in his Commentaries on the Con- 
stitution of the United States, Vol. 2, page 429 - 440, and 
again, page 519 - 538, has stated at large the arguments 
for and against the proposition that congress has a con- 
stitutional authority to lay taxes and to apply the power 
to regulate commerce as a means directly to encourage 
and protect domestic manufactures; and, without 
giving any opinion of his own on the contested doctrine, 
he has left the reader to draw his own conclusion. I 
should think, however, from the arguments as stated, 
that every mind which has taken no part in the discus- 
sions and felt no prejudice or territorial bias on either 
side of the question, would deem the arguments in favor 
of the congressional power vastly superior.' 

"It will be seen, that in this extract, the power to 
make improvements is not directly mentioned; but by 
examining the context both of Kent and of Story, it will 
appear that the power mentioned in the extract and 
the power to make improvements are regarded as 
identical. It is not to be denied that many great and 



good men have been against the power; but it is 
insisted that quite as many as great and as good 
have been for it; and it is shown that on a full survey 
of the whole, Chancellor Kent was of opinion that the 
arguments of the latter were vastly superior. 

"This is but the opinion of a man, but who was that 
man? He was one of the ablest and most learned lawyers 
of his age or of any other age. It is no disparagement 
to Mr. Polk nor, indeed, to any one who devotes much 
time to politics, to be placed far behind Chancellor Kent 
as a lawyer. His attitude was most favorable to correct 
conclusions. He wrote coolly and in retirement. He was 
struggling to rear a durable monument of fame; and he 
well knew that truth and thoroughly sound reasoning 
were the only sure foundations. Can the party opinion 
of a party president on a law question, as this purely is, 
be at all compared or set in opposition to that of such a 
man in such an attitude as Chancellor Kent? 

"This constitutional question will probably never be 
better settled than it is, until it shall pass under judicial 
consideration; but I do think that no man who is clear 
on this question of expediency need feel his conscience 
much pricked upon this. 

"Mr. Chairman, the president seems to think that 
enough may be done in the way of improvements by 
means of tonnage duties, under state authority, with the 
consent of the general government. Now, I suppose this 
matter of tonnage duties is well enough in its own sphere. 
I suppose it may be efficient to make slight improvements 
and repairs in harbors already in use and not much out of 
repair. But if I have any correct general idea of it, it 
must be wholly inefiBcient for any general beneficent 
purposes of improvement. I know very little, or rather 
nothing at all, of the practical matter of levying and 
collecting tonnage duties; but I suppose one of its 
principles must be to lay a duty for the improvement of 
any particular harbor upon the tonnage coming into that 



harbor. To do otherwise — to collect money in one 
harbor to be expended on improvements in another — 
would be an extremely aggravated form of that inequality 
which the president so much deprecates. If I be right 
in this, how could we make any entirely new improve- 
ments by means of tonnage duties? How make a road, 
a canal or clear a greatly obstructed river? The idea that 
we could involves the same absurdity of the Irish bull 
about the new boots: 'l shall niver git 'em on,' says 
Patrick, 'till I wear 'em a day or two, and stretch 'em a 
little.' We shall never make a canal by tonnage duties 
until it shall already have been made awhile so the 
tonnage can get into it. 

"After all, the president concludes that possibly there 
may be some great objects of improvements which can 
not be effected by tonnage duties and which therefore 
may be expedient for the general government to take in 
hand. Accordingly, he suggests, in case any such be 
discovered, the propriety of amending the constitution. 
Amend it for what? If, like Jefferson, the president 
thought improvements expedient but not constitutional, 
it would be natural enough for him to recommend such 
an amendment; but hear what he says in this very 
message: 

" 'In view of these portentous consequences, I cannot 
but think that this course of legislature should be arrested, 
even were there nothing to forbid it in the fundamental 
laws of our Union.' 

"For what, then, would he have the constitution 
amended? With him it is a proposition to remove one 
impediment, merely to be met by others, which in his 
opinion cannot be removed — to enable congress to do 
what, in his opinion, they ought not to do if they could. ' ' 

Here Mr. Meade, of Virginia, inquired if Mr. Lincoln 
understood the president to be opposed on grounds of 
expediency to any and every improvement. To which 
Mr. Lincoln answered: 



"in the very part of his message of which I am now 
speaking, I understood him as giving some vague 
expressions in favor of some possible objects of improve- 
ments; but, in doing so, I understand him to be directly 
in the teeth of his arguments in other parts of it. 
Neither the president nor anyone can possibly specify 
an improvement which shall not be clearly liable to one 
or another of the objections he has urged on the score of 
expediency. I have shown, and might show again, that 
no work, no object can be so general as to dispense 
its benefits with precise equality; and this inequality is 
chief among the 'portentous consequences* for which he 
declares that improvements should be arrested. No, sir; 
when the president intimates that something in the way 
of improvements may properly be done bj^ the general 
government, he is shrinking from the conclusions to 
which his own arguments would force him. He feels 
that the improvements of this broad and goodly land are 
a mighty interest; and he is unwilling to confess to the 
people, or perhaps to himself, that he has built an argu- 
ment which when pressed to its conclusion entirely 
annihilates this interest. 

"I have already said that no one who is satisfied of 
the expediency of making improvements need be much 
uneasy in his conscience about its constitutionality. 

"l wish now to submit a few remarks on the general 
proposition of amending the constitution. As a general 
rule, I think we would do much better to let it alone. 
No slight occasion should tempt us to touch it. Better 
rather habituate ourselves to think of it as unalterable. 
It can scarcely be made better than it is. New provisions 
would introduce new difl&culties and thus create and 
increase appetite for further change. No, sir; let it stand 
as it is. Now, hands have never touched it. The men 
who made it have done their work and have passed away. 
Who shall improve on what they did ? 



ANSWERS THE ARGUMENT OF 
INEQUAIvlTY. 

"Mr. Chairman, for the purpose of reviewing this 
message in the least possible time, as well as for the sake 
of distinctness, I have analyzed its arguments as well as 
I could and reduced them to the propositions I have 
stated. I have now examined them in detail. I wish 
to detain the committee only a little while longer with 
some general remarks on the subject of improvements. 
That the subject is a difficult one, cannot be denied. 
Still, it is no more difficult in congress than in the 
state legislatures, in the counties or in the smallest 
municipal districts which everywhere exist. All can 
recur to instances of this difficulty in the case of county 
roads, bridges and the like. 

"One man is offended because a road passes over his 
land; and another is offended because it does not pass 
over his; one is dissatisfied because the bridge, for which 
he is taxed, crosses the river on a different road from 
that which leads from his house to town; another cannot 
bear that the county should get in debt for these same 
roads and bridges; while not a few struggle hard to have 
roads located over their lands, and then stoutly refuse to 
let them be opened, until they are first paid the damages. 
Even between the different wards and streets of towns 
and cities, we find this same wrangling and difficulty. 
Now these are no other than the very difficulties against 
which and out of which the president constructs his 
objections of 'inequality', 'speculation,' and 'crushing 
the treasury.' There is but a single alternative about 
them — they are sufficient, or they are not. If sufficient, 
they are sufficient out of congress as well as in it, and 
there is the end. We must reject them as insufficient, 
or lie down and do nothing by any authority. Then, 
difficulty though there be, let us meet and overcome it. 



" 'Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt; 
Nothing so hard, but search will find it out.' 

"Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and 
then we shall find the way. The tendency to undue 
expansion is unquestionably the chief difficulty. How 
to do something, and still not to do too much is the 
desideratum. I^et each contribute his mite in the way of 
suggestion. The late Silas Wright in a letter to the 
Chicago convention contributed his, which was worth 
something; and I now contribute mine, which may be 
worth nothing. At all events, it will mislead nobody 
and therefore will do no harm. I would not borrow 
money. I am against an overwhelming, crushing system. 
Suppose that at each session, congress shall first determine 
how much money can for that year be spared for improve- 
ments; then apportion that sum to the most important 
objects. So far, all is easy; but how shall we determine 
which are the most important? On this question comes 
the collision of interests. I shall be slow to acknowledge 
that your harbor or your river is more important than 
mine, and vice versa. To clear this difficulty, let us 
have that same statistical information which the gentle- 
man from Ohio (Mr. Vinton) suggested at the beginning 
of this session. In that information we shall have a 
stern, unbending basis of facts — a basis in nowise sub- 
ject to whim, caprice, or local interest. The pre -limited 
amount of means will save us from doing too much, and 
the statistics will save us from doing what we do, in 
wrong places. Adopt and adhere to this course, and, 
it seems to me, the difficulty is cleared. 

"One of the gentlemen from South Carolina (Mr. 
Rhett) very much deprecates these statistics. He partic- 
ularly objects, as I understand him, to counting all the 
pigs and chickens in the land. I do not perceive much 
force in the objection. It is true, that if everything be 
enumerated a portion of such statistics may not be very 



useful to this object. Such products of the country as 
are to be consumed where they are produced, need no 
roads and rivers, no means of transportation, and have 
no very proper connection with this subject. The sur- 
plus, that which is produced in one place to be consumed 
in another; the capacity of each locality for producing a 
greater surplus; the natural means of transportation and 
their susceptibility of improvement; the hindrances, 
delays and losses of life and property during transporta- 
tion, and the causes of each would be among the most 
valuable statistics in this connection. 

"From these it would readily appear where a given 
amount of expenditure would do the most good. These 
statistics might be equally accessible, as they would be 
equally useful, to both the nation and the states. In 
this way and by these means, let the nation take hold of 
the larger works and the states the smaller ones; and 
thus, working in a meeting direction, directly, but 
steadily and firmly, what is made unequal in one place, 
may be equalized in another, extravagance avoided, and 
the whole country put on that career of prosperity which 
shall correspond with its extent of territory, its natural 
resources and the intelligence and enterprise of its 
people." 

lyincoln's speech shows careful preparation. The 
authorities he used were secured from the Library of 
Congress. Today a member of congress wanting author- 
ities, leaves his desk, goes to a telephone in the cloak- 
room and calls up the Congressional Library and makes 
his request. The librarian with the aid of innumerable 
clerks at once gets the books from their shelves, carries 
them to a large automatic tube and by means of com- 
pressed air in a minute's time wafts, so to speak, the 
books to the halls of congress, almost on top of the mem- 
ber's desk. In Lincoln's day this was not so. The 
librarian of congress at that time told how Lincoln got 
his authorities : 



"Mr. Ivincoln came to the library one day for the pur- 
pose of procuring some law books which he wanted to 
take to his room for examination. Getting together all 
the books he wanted, he placed them in a pile on a table. 
Taking a large bandanna handkerchief from his pocket, 
he tied them up, and putting a stick which he had 
brought with him through a knot he had made in the 
handkerchief, adjusting the package of books to his 
stick, he shouldered it and marched off from the library 
to his room. In a few days he returned the books in the 
same way." 

IvINCOLN'S VISIT TO NIAGARA FAI^LS. 

In the summer of 1848 Lincoln went to the New 
England States, where he made a number of political 
speeches, and in September on his homeward trip he 
stopped off to see Niagara. After his death there were 
found among his papers various notes for lectures, 
among which was the following which shows "how 
deeply his mind was affected by the majesty of that 
mighty wonder : ' ' 

Niagara Falls ! By what mysterious power is it 
that millions and millions are drawn from all parts of 
the world to gaze upon Niagara Falls ? 

"There is no mystery about the thing itself. Every 
effect is just as any intelligent man, knowing the causes, 
would anticipate without seeing it. If the water moving 
onward in a great river reaches a point where there is a 
perpendicular jog of a hundred feet in descent in the 
bottom of the river, it is plain the water will have a vio- 
lent and continuous plunge at that point. It is also 
plain, the water, thus plunging, will foam and roar and 
send up a mist continuously, in which last, during sun- 
shine, there will be perpetual rainbows. 

"The mere physical of Niagara Falls is only this. 
Yet this is really a very small part of that world's won- 



44 



der. Its power to excite reflection and emotion is its 
great charm. The geologist will demonstrate that the 
plunge, or fall, was once at L,ake Ontario, and has worn 
its way back to its present position ; he will ascertain 
how fast it is wearing now, and so get a basis for deter- 
mining how long it has been wearing back from Lake 
Ontario, and finally demonstrate by it that this world is 
at least fourteen thousand years old. 

"A philosopher of a slightly different turn will say: 
'Niagara Falls is only the lip of the basin out of which 
pours all the surplus water which drains down on two 
or three hundred thousand square miles of earth's sur- 
face.' He will estimate with approximate accuracy that 
five hundred thousand tons of water fall with their full 
weight a distance of a hundred feet each minute — thus 
exerting a force equal to the lifting of the same weight, 
through the same space, in the same time. 

"But still there is more. It calls up the indefinite 
past. When Columbus first sought this continent — 
when Christ suffered on the Cross — when Moses led 
Israel through the Red Sea — nay, even when Adam first 
came from the hand of his Maker; then, as now, Niagara 
was roaring here. The eyes of that species of extinct 
giants whose bones fill the mounds of America have 
gazed on Niagara, as ours do now. Contemporary with 
the first race of men, and older than the first man, Niag- 
ara is strong and fresh today as ten thousand years ago. 
The Mammoth and Mastodon, so long dead that frag- 
ments of their monstrous bones alone testify that they 
ever lived, have gazed on Niagara — in that long, long 
time never still for a single moment, never dried, never 
froze, never slept, never rested." 

lylNCOIvN'S PATENT BOAT. 

There is no question lyincoln understood the naviga- 
tion of our western rivers and that he was thoroughly 



45 



familiar with those rivers, their currents, snags, sand- 
bars and other impediments. That he thought much on 
the improvement of waterways is evinced, for in 1849 
he applied for and on May 2 2d of that year secured a 
patent for "an improved method of lifting vessels over 
shoals." The model is a bellows attached to each side 
of a boat, below the water line, and which, when it was 
desired to lift the boat over shoals or sandbars, were in- 
flated full of air. The model was whittled by I^incoln 
apparently out of a cigar box and a shingle, and is now 
in the patent ofi&ce in Washington. 



THE BRIDGE CASE. 

The cornerstone was laid September 1, 1854, for the 
first bridge across the Mississippi river between Daven- 
port, Iowa, and the Island of Rock Island. The bridge 
was to be built for the then Chicago and Rock Island 
road. St. I^ouis had hitherto enjoyed a monopoly of the 
western commerce. Her merchants became very much 
exercised over the contemplated bridge. The St. I^ouis 
Chamber of Commerce adopted the following : 

"Resolved, That a bridge is unconstitutional, an 
obstruction to navigation, dangerous, and that it is the 
duty of every western state, river city and town to take 
immediate action to prevent the erection of such a struc- 
ture." 

A resolution was also passed by the city council of 
St. Louis, instructing the mayor of that city to apply to 
the supreme court of the United States for an injunction, 
restraining the building of the bridge. 

This was the beginning of a long and bitter warfare 
carried on by many of the river cities and towns and the 
steamboat people against the railroads. The steamboat 
Efl&e Afton on May 6th, 1856, while trying to pass 
through the draw pier of the then completed bridge, was 



struck by a wind and driven against a pier. The boat 
took fire, which was communicated to the bridge, a por- 
tion of which was consumed. The steamer was a total 
wreck. 

The owners of the boat commenced suit against the 
bridge company, and in 1857 Abraham I^incoln was 
called into the case as one of the counsel for the com- 
pany. In Chicago it was openly charged that the St. 
lyouis Chamber of Commerce had bribed the captain to 
purposely run his boat against the pier. 

The case was tried in the United States circuit court 
at Chicago in September, 1857, Judge John McL,ean pre- 
siding. The case was entitled, Hurd et al vs. Railroad- 
Bridge Company. The trial lasted fourteen days, and 
it was probably the most noted and widely advertised 
case ever tried in Chicago up to that time. The Hon. 
R. R. Hitt, afterward member of congress from the 
Thirteenth Illinois district was the reporter. H. M. 
Wead of Peoria, T. D. Lincoln of Cincinnati and C. 
Beckwith of Chicago represented the steamboat interests 
while Norman B. Judd of Chicago, Joseph Knox of Rock 
Island and Abraham Lincoln of Springfield represented 
the bridge company. The Chicago Press gave a full ac- 
count daily of the trial, also a synopsis of the arguments 
of counsel, under date of September 25th. It said : 

"Mr. A. Lincoln in his address to the jury was very 
successful, as far as clear statement and close logic was 
concerned." 

The jury, however, failed to agree, which was con- 
sidered a victory for the bridge company. 

Judge H. W. Blodgett who was present at the trial, 
said the steamboat men relied on two points : 

"First. That the river was the great waterway for 
the commerce of the valley, and could not legally be 
obstructed by a bridge. 

"Second. That this particular bridge was so located 
with reference to the channel of the river at that point 



47 



as to make it a peril to all water craft navigating the 
river and an unnecessary obstruction to navigation. 

"The first proposition had not at that time been 
directly passed upon by the supreme court of the United 
States, although the Wheeling bridge case involved the 
question ; but the court had evaded a decision upon it, 
by holding that the Wheeling bridge was so low as to be 
an unnecessary obstruction to the use of the river by 
steamboats. The discussion of the first proposition on 
the part of the bridge company devolved mainly upon 
Mr. Abraham Lincoln. 

"I listened with much interest to his argument on this 
point, and while I was not impressed by it as a specially 
eloquent effort (as the word eloquent is generally under- 
stood) , I have always considered it as one of the ablest 
efforts I ever heard from Mr. Lincoln at the bar. His 
illustrations were apt and forcible, his statements clear 
and logical, and his reasons in favor of the policy (and 
necessarily the right) to bridge the river, and thereby 
encourage the settlement and building up of the vast 
area of fertile country to the west of it, were broad and 
statesmanlike. 

"The pith of his argument was in his statement that 
one man had as good a right to cross a river as another 
had to sail up or down it ; that these were equal and 
mutual rights which must be exercised so as not to inter- 
fere with each other, like the right to cross a street or 
highway and the right to pass along it. From this un- 
deniable right to cross the river he then proceeded to 
discuss the means for crossing. Must it always be by 
canoe or ferryboat ? Must the products of all the bound- 
less fertile country lying west of the river for all time be 
compelled to stop on its western bank, be unloaded from 
the cars and loaded upon a boat, and after the transit 
across the river, be reloaded into cars on the other side, 
to continue on their journey east? 



"In this connection he drew a vivid picture of the 
future of the great west lying beyond the river, and 
argued that the necessities of commerce demanded that 
the bridges across the river be a conceded right, which 
the steamboat interests ought not to be allowed to suc- 
cessfully resist, and thereby stay the progress of develop- 
ment and civilization in the region to the west. 

"While I cannot recall a word or sentence of the 
argument, I well remember its effect on all who listened 
to it, and the decision of the court fully sustained the 
right to bridge so long as it did not unnecessarily 
obstruct navigation." 

Lincoln's argument covered the channel of the river, 
its currents and their effect at the different stages of 
water at the bridge and up over the rapids. In illus- 
trating his points, Lincoln used a very fine miniature 
steamboat . 

A few incidents relating to the river at the point where 
this bridge crossed are of interest in connection with 
Lincoln's plea. 

In the summer of 1837, the United States government 
ordered a survey of the Rock river rapids in the 
Mississippi river, at the foot of which was afterward 
built the bridge involved in the law suit. December 6th, 
1837, the lieutenant of engineers, to whom had been 
assigned the duty, made an exhaustive report, accom- 
panying the same with a map of the river from the lower 
end (the foot of Rock Island) to the upper end of the 
rapids. 

In his argument to the jury, Lincoln necessarily used 
all of the government surveys and maps, as well as all 
other data available and undoubtedly possessed himself 
of the information given in the report and map made by 
the engineer's corps. This same United States engineer, 
who had been commissioned a lieutenant in 1837, made 
other plans that gave to the then President Lincoln, 
much concern and trouble in the years from 1861 to 

49 



1865. The United States lieutenant of engineers of 1837 
— Robert K. Lee — later became general in command of 
the confederate army. 

When Ivincoln was endeavoring to convince the jury 
that the bridge was neither an object of danger, nor an 
obstruction to the navigation of the Mississippi river, he 
might have called as a witness another person who was 
also in after years to become a powerful factor in shaping 
Lincoln's destiny. 

In September, 1832, the Sac war chief. Black Hawk, 
whom Abraham Lincoln as a soldier boy tried to help 
capture, became a prisoner of war at Prairie du Chien, 
was placed on board a steamboat to be taken to Fort 
Armstrong on Rock Island. Upon the boat's arrival at 
the fort, it was learned that cholera was raging there, 
and the United States lieutenant in charge of the boat 
was not permitted to land. He anchored his boat in the 
river opposite the fort, but a few hundred feet above 
where the bridge was afterward built. Had this young 
lieutenant been called, he might have given valuable 
testimony concerning the current of the river at this 
point. During the civil war this young lieutenant, 
Jefferson Davis, became president of the confederate 
states. 



LINCOLN AND THE MONITOR. 

Lincoln's election to the presidency, the breaking out 
of the civil war and its sanguinary prolongation absorbed 
the entire interests of the country and of congress and 
gave to Lincoln neither the time nor opportunity to 
promote the project of the development of our waterways. 
As commander-in-chief of our army and navy, Lincoln 
was brought closely and largely in contact with military 
matters, and there is no reason to doubt that his expe- 
rience as a captain and private in the Black Hawk war 
was of much benefit to him. 



Lincoln had never been on an ocean-going vessel, his 
knowledge of boating being confined solely to craft that 
navigated our inland waters. Yet there is one incident 
in his connection with our navy in which his decision, I 
think, was aided largely by his early experience on our 
western waterways. 

In the spring of 1861 during our civil war, the con- 
federates took possession of the steamer Merrimac, which 
they found in Norfolk harbor, and converted her into a 
formidable iron-clad vessel, re-naming her the Virginia. 
This boat destroyed the frigates Cumberland and Con- 
gress, and for a while all of our shipping seemed at the 
mercy of this rebel boat. One Captain John Ericsson 
had the plans of a boat which he wanted our government 
to build. Experts to whom the project was submitted 
regarded it as a very doubtful experiment. President 
Lincoln, on being shown the model, believed the boat if 
built would be able to successfully overcome the Merri- 
mac and would be a valuable addition to our navy. 

Captain Fox, the adviser of Captain Ericsson, once 
expressed a doubt as to the Monitor's success upon which 
the president said: 

"I believe in the Monitor and her commander. If 
Captain Worden does not give a good account of the 
Monitor and of himself, I shall have made a mistake in 
following my judgment for the first time. Since I have 
been here, captain, I have not made a mistake in follow- 
ing my clear judgment of men since this war began. I 
followed that judgment when I gave Worden the 
command of the Monitor. I would make the appoint- 
ment over again today." 

The Monitor was built, and afterward while the 
boat was on her way from New York to Hampton Roads, 
Captain Fox again presented what he considered the 
possibilities of failure. The president replied:" 

"No, no, captain, I respect your judgment, as you 
have reason to know, but this time you are all wrong. 



The Monitor was one of my inspirations; I believed in 
her firmly when that energetic contractor first showed me 
Ericsson's plans. Captain Ericsson's plain but rather 
enthusiastic demonstration made my conversion per- 
manent. It was called a floating battery then; I called 
it a raft. I caught some of theinventoj^'s enthusiasm and 
it has been growing upon me. I thought then, and I am 
confident now, it is just what we want. I am sure that 
the Monitor is still afloat and that she will yet give a 
good account of herself. Sometimes I think she may be 
the veritable sling with a stone that will yet smite the 
Merrimac Philistine in the forehead." 

The president's judgment was verified, for the fight of 
the Monitor and Merrimac changed all the conditions of 
naval warfare. Captain Fox afterward said: "l know 
all the facts which united to give us the Monitor. I 
withhold no credit from Captain Ericsson, her inventor, 
but I know that the country is principally indebted for 
the construction of the vessel to President Lincoln." 

There can be no doubt that in forming his estimate of 
the Monitor's capabilities, Lincoln was guided largely 
by his experience as a boat builder, pilot and navigator 
opon our western rivers. 

Most of Lincoln's early life was interwoven with the 
pioneer history of our rivers and their commerce. Much 
of his knowledge was obtained from travel thereon and 
observation thereof, and as has been well said by one of 
his biographers : 

"All that Abraham Lincoln saw of men and the world 
outside of Gentry ville and its neighborhood, until after 
he was twenty-one years of age, he saw on these rivers. ' ' 

His legislative experience had been of great benefit to 
him. There he had always favored the policy of develop- 
ing the rivers and the resources of the state by the 
fostering aid of the local government. His speech in 
congress shows he understood the waterway problem, 



52 



was fully alive to its interests and realized its needs. 
Had he lived longer there is no doubt our rivers and 
harbors would have found in him a worthy champion." 
It was as a youth, while engaged on the river in the 
humble capacity of a flatboat man, that he was brought 
face to face with the slave question, and it was then that 
he formed those opinions which in after years became 
such a potent factor in shaping his life and the destiny 
of our country. 



LFJc ^'3 



± 



